Attention Canadians Abroad 海外に住んでいるカナダ人へのお知らせ

Election time! 選挙だ！

Various Shrines and Temples 異なる神社と寺

I was coming back from a school I dislike (although I actually had a good day there, so perhaps my opinion will change) a bit early, so I had time to explore. I saw this massive temple gate from the main road, so I went up to it to have a look. Apparently it was rebuilt a few years ago. I didn't go into the temple itself, though. To speak truthfully, I don't like temples. I much prefer shrines.
あまり好きじゃな い学校から（でも実は良い日を過ごしたので意見が変わるかも）普通より早く帰ってたので探検する時間が有った。道からこの寺の大門を覗い てちょっと見に行った。なんか何年前に再建された。寺の中に入らなかったけどさ。実は、寺はあまり好きじゃない。神社はもっともっと好き。

Inside both ... pillars? of the gate, there are Buddhist saints/gods to protect the interior. This guy might be Niou, the Benevolent King, making a scary face to prevent evil spirits from entering.
大門の・・・柱？の中に域内を守る為の仏教の聖人・神の木像がある。悪い神が入らないように怖い顔をやっている木像は仁王かもしれない。

Damned if I know where it comes from (possibly mountain streams that were concreted over in the name of progress), but water tends to flow down these ditches.
どこから来るか全く知らぬ（進展の名でコンクリートされた沢）が、水がこんな溝に流れるのは普通だ。

This particular one was very steep, and the water was rushing very fast.
この溝はとても険しいので水が早く流れた。

As the sun began to set, I entered the precincts of a shrine.
日没が始まる時に神社の域に入った。

I wasn't sure what the shrine was dedicated to. A mountain god, perhaps?
この神社は何を献納・奉納していたか分からなかった。山神かな？

Or perhaps snakes?
それとも蛇？

I would probably find my answer at the top.
山頂で答えが見つかれるかな。

Imagine my surprise when I found this giant main building at the top! There was even a Shinto priest there, dressed in robes of white and purple, who happily told me that the shrine had been here for about six hundred years, although the main shrine of which this was just a division, had been founded by the Fifteenth Emperor, Oujin. The priest also used the Imperial Year dating system (counting years from the traditional founding of Japan by Emperor Jinmu; Imperial Year 2600 was in 1940.) when he told me this. Cool. After seeing the previous signs on the way up the hill, I asked what god the shrine was dedicated to. He laughed and said all of them. It's all under Amaterasu's dominion anyway.
山頂に着いてこんなに大きな宮が在るを見ると驚いた！ 白と紫の袴を着ている神官がこの八幡神社が六百年前ぐらい建てたけど、本宮は第十五天皇の応神天皇に設定されたと喜んで教えた。神官さんも皇紀年齢制度を使っていた。凄い。坂を上りながら色んな神の看板を見たから神官さんにどっちの神が奉納されていると尋ねた。笑って「八百万」と答えた。全部は天照大御神の領域だから問題はない。

Biking back to the Board of Education, I saw this sign. Sounds like a 50's horror movie of sorts.
教育委員会に戻りながらこの看板を見た。なんか五十年代の恐怖映画みたいね。

A few days ago there was an International Thing at the place I teach English at on Monday night. It was designed to Teach Japanese Culture to the Foreigners, and consisted mostly of Brazilians. Omar, Joshua and I also participated, making pottery where I attempted to create a teacup that would fall within the Wabi style.
先日は国際な故事が僕が月曜日に英語を教える市立館で行った。「外国人に日本文化を教える」為の会だったしブラジル人が一杯来た。オーマーとジョシュアも参加した。朕は陶芸会で侘び式の茶碗を作ってみた。

There was also some shodou (yay!), where everyone wrote Harmony, but I, with imperial ambitions, wrote Country. The funny thing is, I kept on switching between pronunciations, alternating between kuni and koku but mostly using guo.　
書道会（やった！）も有った。皆が「和」を書いたけど、帝国的な大望を持っている朕が「國」を書いた。変な処は、異なる発音を使って、くに、コク、そして大体中国語の「グヮオ」を使っていた。

I also met the Chinese teacher, a naturalised Chinese woman whose classes I wish I could take, but they always occur on days when I am busy. The Japanese girls also dressed up in Chinawear. Here Omar works his magic.
帰化した元中国人の中国語先生に会った。先生の授業に入りたいけどいつも忙しい日に起こる。日本人の美人達も中国服を着た。この写真でオーマーが彼の魅力な魔法を使う。

The next day we all went to karaoke. For some reason I think Chibi Aya (right) looks like a fish with that face.
次の日はカラオケに行った。不明な理由でちび亜矢がその顔で魚みたいと思う。

Of course, when no-one suspected, Omar went at it again.
勿論、誰もが期待しない時に、オーマーがもう一回魔法を使った。

On the road to the Board of Education, I found another kura abandoned in the woods, next to a rice field. I wonder who owns it; I'd love to take a look inside.
また教育委員会行きの道に田圃の隣に捨てられた庫を見つけた。誰かがこれを持っているかな。中に入ってみたい。

Usually I pass by this pillar, but that day I had time and decided to explore. I went onto a small road and attempted to find the Kashihara Shrine that this pillar points the way to.
普通はこの柱を無視して行くけど、その日は時間あったので探検しようと決めた。小さな路に入って橿原（かしはら）神社の参道の路を沿った。

After a short jaunt I found it.
短い旅の後で見つけた。

Inside, there were cute instructions on washing your hands.
中には可愛い手洗い・清める説明が書いてあった。

The basin had a dragon perched on top spewing water, akin to The Hall of Two Moons in Nara.
水盤の上に龍がひょいと座って口から水を吐いていた。奈良の東大寺の二月堂みたい。

While I was looking at the giant stone pillar celebrating Amaterasu, who should appear but the same Shinto priest from Hachiman Jinja! Just a quick hello this time though.
この天照大御神を祭っている巨石柱を見ながら、八幡神社の同じ神官さんが出た！今回は急ぎ挨拶だけだったけど。

In front of the bell at the main shrine were instructions on proper praying. Turns out I've been doing it wrong the whole time.
鈴の前に正しい祈り方の説明が書いてあった。今までは違う方をやりそうだった・・・

One cool thing I found in the shrine (partly because there was nobody there to stop me) was a god village. Anyone remember Spirited Away? God houses ... Cool. Must be fun at night.
神社の中で一つ格好良い物を見つけた（僕を止めさせる人は居なかったかな？）。それは神の村だった。誰かが千と千尋の神隠し？神の家・・・凄い。夜は楽しそうだね。

I found this statue hidden behind some leaves. I wonder what god/saint it is?
葉の奥にこの石像は隠れていた。どっちの神・聖人かな？

Apparently Emperor Meiji visited here a long time ago, and there are lots of stone markers strewn about. This one celebrates the 2600th Imperial Year.
なんか昔に明治天皇がこのに来たそうだ。色んな石柱が立っている。これは皇紀２６００年を祝う。

Having seen all there was to see, I left the shrine and continued to the Board of Education. Along the way I found more stones. Graves or gods? Who knows.
見える物を全部見てから神社を出て教育委員会に行き続けた。行きながら石をもっと見つけた。墓か神？誰も知らぬ。

I've been reading a lot of Ranma recently. Gotta love Shanpu.
最近は乱馬をよく読んでいる。珊璞を愛しなくちゃならぬ。

I went to one school and saw that the fifth graders had put portraits of themselves up on the wall, much like I did in Grade 5. Except that they are much much better.
或る学校で五年生が自分が描いた絵を壁に貼った。僕も五年生の頃にこんな事をやっていた。しかし、日本人の方は目茶上手い。

I then fulfilled my promise of getting a Chinese textbook for a student at a school with a Chinese friend. It's pretty cute. Unfortunately it uses katakana, but since the pinyin is also written I hope she will learn it the correct way.
それからは中国人の友達がいる小学生に教科書を上げるよの約束を守った。結構可愛いね。但し、片仮名を使っちゃうので駄目だな・・・でも、ピンインも使うので正しい方で習うと望む。

And I cleaned the apartment.
そしてアパートの掃除をした。

Buddhist Caves 仏教の洞窟の跡

On Saturday, I went with Liz and Kira to Matsushima, an area of Sendai that was called one of Japan's three most beautiful places by the great poet Basho. To get there we rode a train, and I instantly felt like I was back in Tokyo, with the blue-striped JR train coming by ... just like the Keihin-Tohoku line.
土曜日はリズとキラと一緒に芭蕉が日本の三つ一番綺麗な場所の一つと言った仙台の地域の松島に行った。その為に電車に乗って、なんか青空色の列車を見ると丸で又東京に居る感じが出た。京浜東北線の電車の色と一緒の・・・凄く懐かしい。

Before going to Matsushima, however, we stopped at a place called Shiogama (salt pot). There, we went in search of a hill fort but found a huge shrine instead.
松島に行く前に塩釜という所に行った。それで坂城を探しに行ったけどでかい神社を見つけた。

An amusing sign on the road to the shrine. It says "No throwing away cats! We are watching you!".
神社行きの路に貼ってある看板。

There was a holy horse near the main entrance of the shrine! Kira proceeded to feed it carrots. 聖馬が神社の中央口に居た！キラがにんじんを食べさせた。

A sign promoting Shichi-Go-San.
七五三をお勧めしている看板。

A creepy-looking lantern.
何か奇怪っぽいな灯。

This picture turned out nice, didn't it? Kind of like a postcard. Very Japanese.
この写真はよく撮られたね！葉書みたいでしょう。とっても日本っぽい。

So eventually we left the shrine and took the ferry to Matsushima, which isn't one island but a bunch of small ones.
結局その神社を出て松島まで路船に乗った。

One island that we visited (there are bridges at the terminal port) had apparently been the site of a Buddhist temple. As such, there were lots of caves and ruins.
朕們が行った島の一つ（橋はある）は多分お寺の域だったと想う。それで、色んな洞窟と跡が在る。

This particular cave is actually a well, which made an odd sound when I dropped a coin into it. Maybe there's a bell at the bottom?
実はこの洞窟は井戸だ。硬貨を落として不思議な音が出た。底に鈴があるか？

The Light of Buddha.
仏陀の光。











These are pictures of the various statues and caves that make up the temple complex. 寺域で在る様々な石像と洞窟の写真だ。

Buddha's light shines on Liz.
仏陀の光がリズを輝かせる。

The girls ponder the meaning of life.
命の意味を考えている二人の娘等。

The cliffs of the island.
島の岸壁。

Somebody stuffed daruma into this crack in the stone.
岩の穴に誰かが達磨を入れた。

On our way back to the station we found another (lively) temple complex, but as it was getting late and there was an entrance fee we opted to do it another day.
駅に戻りながらもう一つの寺域を見つけたけど、段々暗くなっていたし入金は必要だったので他の日にしようと決めた。

Outside of Sendai Station there were a bunch of girls dancing! The weird thing is ... they were Japanese ... yet they could dance!
仙台駅の外で女性団体が踊っていた！変な点は・・・日本人だったのに・・・踊れた！

The day finished up with dinner at Sukiya and viewing a ganguro.
すき屋で夕飯を食べて顔黒を観て日が終わった。

The Right Hand Does Not Know What the Left is Doing 右手が左手は何をしているか知らん

As part of their effort of discouraging young Japanese to start smoking, Japan Tabacco offers skateboard advertisements.
若者がタバコを吸い始めない様にジャパン・タバコがこのスケートボード広告を示す。

There was a morning assembly at one of my schools because there were new transfer students. I wonder if they were embarrassed to be up in front of everyone. They also used the Robot Voices (ex: "My name is Taro! I like baseball!") that I hear about one million times a day.
新しい転校生が来たので朝会をした。皆の前に立っていると恥ずかしかったか？朕が毎日約一億回ぐらい聞くロボット声（例：僕は太郎です！好きな物は・・・野球です！）を使った。

And the poorest, way the hell out in the country Japanese school has more money invested in musical instruments than anything Ontario ever had.
日本の一番田舎に在る貧乏な学校はオンタリオ州が楽器に投資した学校と全然比べられない。

After several months of lifting students, I am now able to lift them straight up and put them on my shoulders without having to bend over. After carrying kids around for a while I like to deposit them on top of shelves. They seem pretty happy about it.
生徒を運ぶの何ヶ月後は背中が全然折らなくて生徒を真っ直ぐに上に運んで肩車が出来るようになった。少し肩車してから棚の上に置く。何か喜んでいる顔をしているけどさ。

When did the Japanese government decide that every school in the country had to have a unicycle?
日本政府がいつ全国各校は一輪車が必要な物だと決めたか？

I was biking around Ichinoseki one night and this truck stopped beside me at the intersection. Those white shapes are chickens.
或る夜は一関で自転車に回り乗りしていた、そして交差点でこの大運車が止まった。その白い形の物は鶏だ。

Fog over rice fields.
田圃で霧。

More shelf-depositing of kids. That one girl has so much energy she moves faster than my camera.
子供の棚置きの続き。あの女子は元気さがそんなに有るので朕のカメラより速い。

In the afternoon there was another assembly where students danced a traditional God Dance (kagura), called the Bird Dance. It was cool. I want to know where they get the Rising Sun Fans.
午後は又会だった。鳥舞という伝統的な神楽をした。かっこよかった。その日の丸扇はどこから買うか知りたい。

Heavenly Academy 高天原學院

I was at the School of No Discipline, which has amazingly become a fun place. Perhaps my screaming at the Violent First-Grader the last time did it. I noticed that on the kids' name tags, which they all wear pinned to the front of their shirts, they also have to list the blood type! I here present an edited version.
無規律学校が奇跡的に楽しい場所になってきた。僕が前に来た時に暴力一年生に叫んだせいかもしれないな。生徒達がいつも付けている名表で液型も書かなくちゃならないと気づいた！ここで編集された編を示す。

It was sunshowering outside that day, but I got to see a rainbow. Hurrah!
その日は外側で狐の嫁入りを感じたけど、虹が見えた。やった！

There was a midyear conference in Hanamaki, at a hotel. Even the public toilets were awesome. Not only can you select the pressure for the bidet, but temperature as well!
中年研究会が花巻の大旅館で行った。公衆手洗いでも素晴らしかった。ビデの水圧が選べるだけじゃなくて温度も！

I further expounded my budding homosexuality by buying a lychee cocktail (sarcasm).
レイシ酒を買って我が新進同性愛をもっと詳説した（皮肉）。

There was even a fake church for weddings. Stupid. Why marry in the church of a religion that you don't follow? (rhetorical)
結婚式の為の偽物教会も在った。あんぽんたんだな。なんで信じてない宗教の教会で結婚するの？（修辞疑問）

Dresses for the fake ceremony. 偽物結婚式の為の婦人洋服。

After coming back from the conference, I stopped in Kitakami to see if I could find my keys and inkan. No such luck. I did find a nice shrine dedicated to the god of thunder though.
研究会から戻ってくる時は北上に止まって鍵か印鑑が見つかれるかと調べた。そんな運がなかったけどね・・・まいや、雷神の神社を見つけたけど。

This poster was at the police station. I can't tell if it's cute or really scary.
この看板は警察署にあった。可愛いか怖いか決められない。

In My Life 我が命で

There's a ramen shop near the station, and this is a picture of the "onion chashu ramen" that I ordered. Chashu is a corruption of the Chinese cha1 shao1, to roast with a fork (I think), and in this case means the pork that's served in ramen. This place's chashu was AWESOME. No fat, great taste. Didn't need the onions though. Next time I'll just order their regular chashu ramen.

駅前でラーメン屋がある、そしてこの写真は僕が頼んだ玉葱叉焼老麺（たまねぎ チャーシュー・ラーメン）だ。チャーシューは中国語の「叉烧 (cha1shao1)」の発音の転訛だ。意味はフォークと焼くと想う、そしてこの場合はラーメンで出ている豚肉だ。この店のチャーシューはステキだっ た。脂肪ない、素晴らしい味。玉葱はいらなかったけど・・・今度は普通のチャーシューラーメンを頼む。

On the way to the Board of Education, there is a small graveyard. Cool.
教育委員会に行けば墓場がある。凄い。

Most of the graves looked like this with the circle on top. Note the post-departed Buddhist name carved into the rock.　墓は大体この丸が上にある形だ。石に刻んである仏教の死後の名前を心にお書留下さい。

The date was carved into this one. Tenpou Era (1830-1844) Year 14, Month 10, Day 8. This guy died a really long time ago. この墓で年が刻んである。天保１４年１０月８日。この人が昔々に亡くなったね。

Japanese Translation Up 日本語訳の更新

Busy Week Part 2 has the Japanese translation finished.

忙しい週間（第二話）の日本語訳は終了。ご覧下さい。

Attention All Japanese さ、日本人、お知らせでござる

Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan.

Article 21. Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed. No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.

日本国憲法の第２１条。

第２１条　集会、結社及び言論、出版その他一切の表現の自由は、これを保障する。検閲は、これをしてはならない。通信の秘密は、これを侵してはならない。

Addendum in response to Anonymous' comment on whether the articles in the Japanese Constitution only apply to the Japanese.

Article 14. All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin.

"The people" could mean only Japanese. It is unclear. However, this is not the Imperial Constitution of 1889, which clearly only applies to Japanese nationals:

Article 29. Japanese subjects shall, within the limits of law, enjoy the liberty of speech, writing, publication, public meetings and associations.

無名のコメントに対して日本国憲法の条が日本人ばかりに影響するかどうかの付録。

第１４条　すべて国民は、法の下に平等であつて、人種、信条、性別、社会的身分又は門地により、政治的、経済的又は社会的関係において、差別されない。

「国民」って日本人ばかりという意味の可能性はある。曖昧だ。しかし、日本人に影響するばかりの1889年の大日本帝国憲法と全然違う。

第２９条 日本臣民ハ法律ノ範囲内ニ於テ言論著作印行集会及結社ノ自由ヲ有ス。

Censorship

Not that I don't have confidence of Japanese people to read English, but this post is not going to have a Japanese translation. Even so, I'm choosing my words carefully and trying to be as obtuse as possible.

A while ago, I wrote an article about one of my days, where I met some people. I wrote about how they do not have citizenship of a certain country. I then wrote something about pieces of paper you need to enter a country and how they have time limits. Then I wrote about the need to teach a certain language to these people because until now they have not spoken the language of certain country until now.

Today, I was told by my supervisor to edit that part of the article. Word had gotten around. People were talking.

I agreed, thinking I had violated student-teacher confidentiality and individual privacy. So I got rid of the section about pieces of paper and time limits, added more praise words to those teaching a certain language, and showed the new paragraph to my supervisor.

No good.

Why?

Because I had mentioned their nationality.

I need opinions, please.

If, say, in your home country of Canada, the States, or Britain or Australia or wherever, you write that a Spanish child is enrolled and requires ESL classes, is that a violation of privacy and work confidentiality because you mentioned the student's nationality?

The original paragraph has been deleted and I'm not telling you what article it was in. Yes, I do have an archived copy of the original.

I thought I was helping Japan progress by showing off a place where students of different nationalities all study together at a typical Japanese school, showing how everything is all nice and happy. Or, should I restore the paragraph and just remove their specific nationalities and replace it with "various nationalities"?

One Thousand Hits 礼・千人・覧

Since I put the counter up, over one thousand people have read my blog. Hurrah! Thanks to all. Since I recently got Photoshop, I decided to try and make some of those 'hit present' things that anime websites do when over a thousand people have viewed their depiction of nun cosplay.

数機を付けてから千人以上が僕の部呂倶を読んでくれた。やった！皆にありがとう。最近はフォトショップをもらってのでそのアニメ・同人誌サイトは千人が修道女コスプレの描写を見てくえたから描く「ヒット・プレゼント」みたいな物を作ってみた。

Busy Week Part 2 忙しい週間（第二話）

On Monday I went to The Western Pole, the school farthest to the west that is in my jurisdiction. It was a Halloween theme, so I brought along A Series of Unfortunate Events, being unable to find The Nightmare Before Christmas (too bad).

月 曜日は「西極」（僕の地域の一 番西の小学校）に行った。ハロヰーンの主題だった。「クリスマスの前の悪夢」が見つけられなかったから「世にも不幸せなできごと」を持ってきた。

I feel rather sad when I got to West Pole, because the kids are actually pretty smart and enthusiastic, but the English coordinator hates English and was only chosen because nobody else would do it. No real second language education here. This is not to slight the teacher – she’s actually quite good at her job. It’s just that she hates English the way I hate math. Anyway, there must have been some kind of play, because these two girls walked in with horse heads on.
西 極に行 くはちょっ と悲しい感じ；生徒達は大体頭いいしやる気もあるけど、英語の担当者は英語が嫌いだ。他の先生が担当者の仕事をすると志願しなかった訳だけで彼女がやって いる。本物の第二言語教育はない。これは先生を軽蔑する事ではない；僕は算数が嫌いように彼女は英語が嫌い。とにかく、その日は何か文化祭か演劇があった のでこの二人の女子が馬の頭の帽子を被っていた。

After coming back to Ichinoseki, we went to a Halloween party at Paper Moon. Jamie, befitting her soul, went as a devil, while I opted for a pirate, which pretty much consisted of me putting on a white shirt.
一関に戻ると紙月のハロヰーン会に行った。ジエメイが魂にとって適当に悪鬼の仮装をした。僕は海賊を選んだ。仮装はただのシャツだった。

On Wednesday I was at Spiderbridge, where they had some kind of activity day where they pretty much ran around the school playing games to get parts of a keyword. I joined in on such games as picking up beans with quicksticks or rolling a ball.
水曜日は蜘蛛橋で何か運動日だった。皆が学校内で走って鍵単語（キーワード）を探していた。僕は箸で豆を取ってみてか球を投げるとか遊びをやってみた。

School finished early, and so it was off to Hanamaki for a night at the onsen! The next day was a national holiday, Culture Day - and what better way to show Japanese culture to a Chinese girl than through an onsen? I booked a room closest to the mixed bath, which coincidentally happened to be one of the oldest buildings at the hotel complex. Excellent!
学 校は早く終わりましたので花巻に行って温泉で時間を過ごしはじめた！次の日は祝日（文化の日）だったし、中国人の女性に日本の文化を自慢的に示すのは温 泉に連れてくる方法しかないでしょう？混浴露天風呂の近くに在る部屋を予約したけど、偶然的に温泉団地の一番古い建物だったかもしれなかった！素晴らし い！

At the mixed bath, we encountered several varieties of old men, many of whom seemed interested in casually staring at Jamie's body. If anyone is planning on going to a mixed bath, I would suggest getting a whole group of friends together. Otherwise there is no "fun". I also met a hotel attendant, an older woman, who during our entire conversation did not look at me once, but just talked to Jamie who did not say a word! We also saw some old smoking advertisements.
混 浴露天風呂で色んな老男の種類が見えたし、皆はジエメイの全裸をじっと見る事に特に興味があるそうだった。誰かが混浴温泉に入るつもりがあれば、友達団 体で行く方がいいと思うよ。それ以外はあまり楽しくない。後は旅館員に会うは面白かった。僕達の会話中では僕の顔を全然みてくれなくて日本語が分からない ジエメイの顔を見ていただけ！そして古いタバコの広告も見た。

There was an old shrine outside dedicated to the onsen. Jamie's first time.
そとで温泉神社が建っていた。ジエメイの初の参りだった。

Hanamaki is only two stops away from Kitakami, which has an awesome movie theatre. Being so close, upon leaving the onsen we went there. We wanted to see Corpse Bride, but that wasn't playing until late afternoon, so we opted for Brothers Grimm instead. Which was pretty good, actually! On the way we discovered this clothing shop, which Omar (the bastard) later noted was rather close to my name.

花巻は素晴らしい映画館がある北上市から二つの駅の距離だけだ。そんなに近かったので温泉を出てから北上に行った。死体お嫁さんを見たかったけどそれは５時ぐらいまで上映してなかったのでグリム兄弟を見た。実は面白かった！映画館に行く間の途中にこの服店を見た。オーマー（その野郎！）が僕の名前と超似ていると指してくれた。

注：Prickは俗語で「ちんちん」という意味だ。

November is Shichi-Go-San time, and a nice shrine on the way to the theatre is Suwa Shrine.
霜月は七五三の時だ！映画館行きの道に諏訪神社という良い雰囲気の神社が建っている。

On the way there we met a girl and her grandmother, who happily showed us the proper way to enter and attend the shrine.
諏訪神社に入る時可愛い女子とお祖母様に会った。喜んで神社の正しい参り方を見せた。

Here Jamie contemplates her own Shichi-Go-San.
ここ、ジエメイが自分の七五三を熟考する。

Since it was Culture Day, a lot of Japanese flags were on display. You hardly ever see them outside of special days.
文化の日だったから色んな日の丸国旗が示されていた。特別な日以外はあまり見ないね。

Kitakami has a kind of covered shopping street similar to Osu in Nagoya, but dead.
北上は名古屋の大須観音商店街みたいな道があるけど、差は北上のは死んでいる。

Inside the mall housing the movie theatre, we noticed a very thorough cleaning service being advertised. After coming back from the movie to Ichinoseki, I realized that somewhere along the line my keys had fallen out of my pocket. This was bad because it meant I had to carry my bicycle home (mostly with Jamie's help), very bad because it robbed me of my primary means of transportation, and extremely bad because it had my inkan on it. However, since the next week I would be going back to Hanamaki for JET purposes, I decided to wait until I could retrace my steps. Fortunately Jamie had my apartment key.
映画館が入っているデパートでとっても完全な掃除サービスの広告を見た。一関に戻ってから途中でポケットから鍵が落ちてしまったと気になった。これは自転 車を運んでいかなくちゃならなかったから悪運だったけど、印鑑も付いてたので最悪運だった。しかし、当時の来週はJETの為に花巻に戻るので道を再び歩き するまでに待つと決めた。ジエメイが僕のアパートの鍵を持っていたのはよかった。

On Friday afternoon we headed into Sendai for the weekend. I introduced Jamie to okonomiyaki.
金曜日の午後は仙台に行った。ジエメイにお好み焼きを紹介した。

While in the bookstore in the Loft near Sendai Station I found this adorable little title.
仙台駅のロフトの本屋に居る時この民族差別で可愛い本を見つけた。

I had previously agreed to come to a UNESCO meeting to talk about Canada on Saturday, so I took the Shinkansen back up to Ichinoseki. Waiting for my ride outside the station, I saw 3 workers demolish an ATM. One shoveled out concrete while the other two smoked and talked.
土曜日はカナダを紹介する為にユネスコの会に来ると約束したので新幹線に乗って一関に戻った。迎えに来る会長を待っている間に銀行自動機を破れる労働者の三人を見た。一人がコンクリートを出しながら他の二人がタバコを吸って話していた。

I then went back to Sendai and spent the night wandering around with Jamie. This is for you, Chris.　The street is called Clis Road, an acronym for Creative Life In Shopping, not Chris, unfortunately. Someone should have told the designer of the similarity to the word clitoris. I wonder if they have special Clismas shopping here?
それから仙台に戻ってジエメイと一緒に迷いした。これはクリスの為だ。道はクリス名じゃなくてなんか「買い物で創造な生活」という意味の英語の略字語のクリスだ。作った人にクリトリスの同じぐらいさを説明するべきだった。特別なクリスマスショッピングはここにあるか？

Here is a nice view of Santa's ass.
サンタさんのお尻だ。

The sign says "No parking of bicycles or motorcycles here". Obviously there are approximately one billion bicycles or motorized bikes next to these signs. The city could make so much money in fines, too bad they don't do anything.
看板は「自転車・バイクは駐車禁止」が書いてある。勿論こんな看板の隣に約一億自転車とバイクは駐車してある。市が罰金で凄く金お金貯まりできそうだけど、なにもしないは残念だ。

This guy was on top of a van belonging to the 'Japan New Revolution Party', yelling about how Chinese and Korean food products were full of poison and Japan should ban all imports. Too bad the country would starve. Although I doubt this would make many Koreans or Chinese sad. The large banner on top says 'Realization of the Imperial Manifest' or something. Perhaps Akihito speaks to this guy in his sleep. Although he's probably misinterpreting the Emperor's true words, which are probably 'Shut the fuck up and make my granddaughter Empress'.
この車の上に立っている男が中国と韓国の食事輸入は毒ばかりなので日本が輸入を全て禁止しなくちゃって叫んでいた。そうすると中国人と韓国人が別に悲しく ならないと思うけどさ。上の看板で天皇の命令を従うぐらいの意味じゃない。平成天皇がこの男は寝ている間に接続的に脳味噌に話し込んでいるかな。この男が 多分天皇陛下の本物の言葉：「口を閉め黙れ、そして朕の孫娘を天皇にやらせ」と誤解していると思う。

Name of a bar and or restaurant. Nice. レストランか居酒屋の名前だ。いいな。

Buddhist monk on the street. It's always a good idea to donate.
道で立っている法師さん。お金を上げるのはいつもいい考えだ。

Well, that was my week with Jamie. The next article will deal with the JET midyear conference.
じゃ、それは僕とジエメイの週間だった。次の記事は中年JET研究会についてに成る。

Busy Week! 忙しい週間！

Wow, what a busy week! Jamie came from Hong Kong and I was busy with her every day in addition to work. Wow! Hopefully I managed to show her enough of Japan to convince her not to hate the country I live in. Of course, on the day she left Ishihara (AKA “Blinky”) said that the Nationalist army had killed way more Chinese at Nanjing than the Imperial Japanese Army did. God I hope someone assassinates him. Not really, as that would just make things worse, but you know what I mean. As so much stuff happened, I'm going to post little by little, adding paragraphs and pictures and Japanese as we go along. So anyway, as I delve into my picture files, please allow me to weave the threads of my story of the past little while with the following visual aids …

うわあ、なんと大変忙しい週間だった！ジエメイが香港から来たの普通の仕事の忙しさより彼女を案内する事も忙しかった。きゃー！ま、運が良かったら日本を十分見せたのでジエメイは日本が嫌いじゃないようになると思い込んだかもしれない。しかし、彼女が帰った日に石原（仮称：馬鹿野郎）が南京で国民党が大日本帝国軍隊より中国人を殺したって述べた。誰かが彼を暗殺すると望む。ま、本当に起こったらもっと大変になるから本当に望んでいないけど、言いたい事は分かるでしょう。とりあえず、写真のファイルに掘るので、ワタクシの物語の糸を織ります・・・

Well, this is the liquor store across from the Board of Education office, which used to be the Ichinoseki Agricultural High School. And you know what, the signs are not just advertising. The alcohol really is cheap. I have found a cheaper source of Kahlua! Hurrah!
これは教育委員会（元一関農業高等学校）の向側に在る酒屋だ。そしてね、看板は広告だけではない。酒は本当に安い。安いカルアの根源を発見しました！やった！

Found a car with a pink license plate near Spiderbridge. Pink usually means sex or prostitution in Japan in certain contexts (i.e. near the train station). Does this mean the owner is a registered sex worker?
蜘蛛橋の近くにピンクのナンバー・プレートの車を見た。状況によって違う（例：駅前）けど、日本でピンクはよく性交か売春と関係あるという意味だ。それで、この車の持ち主は公認の肉体労働者なの？

I went to a new school, which I’ll call Hi-Tech Country, because despite being way the hell out in the country with only three buses per day it boasts an amazing plethora of technology and aesthetics, being a wood-themed institution with solar paneling on the roofs and combination wind-solar turrets around the school’s perimeter. I usually take a bus from Spiderbridge out to a place called Upper Blackstream, but one morning I wasn’t paying attention and just staring out the window. I think the driver forgot to change the sign, because when the board read “Upper Blackstream” I immediately pushed the button to stop the bus, except the bus stopped approximately half a second after I pushed the button. The driver asked if I wanted to get off, and I said no, next stop please. He nodded, and the board changed to Mountainspring. At this point two trains of thought left their respective stations.
最近は新しい小学校に行っている。素晴らしい技術と美しさだ；木の主題だし屋根は太陽電力（陽電？）の板が付いているし、外で総合陽風電力塔も立っているけど、凄い田舎だし毎日バスは3台 だけ走るので、「高技術田舎」の仮称を呼ぼうと思っている。僕は普通的に蜘蛛橋から上黒沢までバスに乗る。しかし、或る朝は蜘蛛橋を出発するとあまり注意 してなかった。運転手が看板を変えると忘れたと思う；なぜなら看板で「上黒沢」が書いてあった時は速くボタンを押した。しかし、押すとバスが後約半秒ぐら い止まった。降りるか運転手が聞いたんだけど、僕は「いいえ、次でお願いします」って返事した。彼がうなずいて「泉山」に看板を変えた。この瞬間に二つの 考えの列車がそれぞれの駅を出発した。

Me: Oh, the bus driver thinks that I missed the previous stop, so that’s why I pushed the button. Since he opened the door, the bus system thinks I got off and that’s why the sign changed. No problem.
僕：あ、前の停に降りなかったからボタンを押したと運転手が思っている。扉を開いたのでバスのコンピューターは僕が降りたと思っているので看板が変わった。無問題。

Driver: I didn’t change the sign in time for Upper Blackstream, so I stopped immediately after I pushed the button. But he said next stop, so off we go to Mountainspring.
運転手：看板を変えるのは上黒沢に間に合わなかったから、彼がボタンを押して速く止まった。ま、でも「次」って言ったから泉山に行こう・・・

Needless to say, I was rather surprised to find myself alone on an isolated country road after getting off the bus. Keeping my head, I called the school and notified them that I would be slightly late, and began to walk back in the direction I had come from. And it was quite good that I had gotten off at the wrong stop, because I found a number of interesting things to take pictures of.
言 わなくていいんでしょう？バスを降りると僕しか誰も居ない田舎の路になっ ちゃってちょっとびっくりした。よく考えたからその日の小学校に電話して少し遅刻するって教えた。それからは来た方面に戻り歩きをしはじめた。実は間違え バス停で降りると色んな面白い写真が撮れたのでよかった。

Right next to the bus stop was a stone shrine gate, dedicated to the bear god of the mountain. Obviously I had to climb the path to see such a shrine.
バス亭の隣に山の熊神に捧げる石の鳥居が立っていた。そんな神社を見る為にはもちろん小路を上らなくちゃならなかった。

This is the path. It consists of the space between the bamboo. Did I mention it was very muddy? Yeah.
これは竹の間の小路だ。とっても泥濘だともう言ったか？そう・・・

And here is the shrine itself, about a third of the way up the hill. Very mossy, with the usual spider webs and offerings of energy drinks. I left a five-yen coin and made my way back down the mountain. I’ll come back in a few years and check how everything is doing.
そしてこれは山の1/3ぐらい上の神社だ。苔が一杯あったし普通の蜘蛛の巣とエネルギー飲み物（力飲物？）の供物が見えた。五円の硬貨を出した山から下がった。後何年間ぐらいこの山に戻ってどうに成ると調べたいと思う。

Continuing down the highway, I happened upon this sign which alerted me that, surprise surprise, there was construction ahead. Apparently, if you don’t go slow, God will kill kittens. You wouldn’t want God to kill kittens, now would you?
国道を沿い続いて、先は（きゃあ！本当？）工事中のお知らせの看板を見た。看板に対して、徐行しないと神様が子猫を殺す。神様が猫を殺させたくないでしょう？

Something marginally more interesting were these storehouses. I find them interesting because you don’t see them much anymore, and according to Alex Kerr, they are filled with treasures. Since a Japanese house looks best when there is nothing in it, wealthy families needed a place to put tables, tea equipment, scrolls and so forth. Made of earthquake-proof thick plaster, the contents of storehouses are often antique, ancient, and valuable.
も う少し面白い物はこの庫だ。もうあまり見ないし、アレックス・カーの情報通 りに宝物が一杯入っているので面白いと思う。日本の家なら一番綺麗に成る時は何も入ってない時なので、金持ちの家族はお客さんが来る時に庫から必要な物 （例えば台、茶道具、巻物とか）を出した。お客さんが出てから、その使った物を庫に返す。厚い壁土で耐震構造の庫の中身はよく古美品だし大昔だし高価な物 だ。

I think we should have had a Halloween party inside the contents of this crumbling storehouse.
この崩れている蔵の中に化物祭（ハロヰーン）の会をしたらいいと思っている。There was also a shrine and stone … plinth, I think they’re called, column out in a rice field. One of the teachers had a book explaining all the weird historical things around the area, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to take a good look at it so I don’t know what this shrine is for. Ah well. Next time.
後は神社と石柱が田圃で立っていた。一人の先生が地域の變な歴史的な跡を説明している本を持っていたんだけど、残念ながら少しだけ読む時間もなかったのでこれは何の為の神社だか分からない。まいや、また今度。

Inside Country Tech, one of the things I like the best is the monitor that displays how much electricity has been generated for the day and what that electricity could do. They also have portraits and pictures of the great scholars and statesmen Iwate has produced. When I’m old I hope I look like this guy, Tatebe Seian, a mid-eighteenth-century doctor.
岩手産の偉い学者と政治家の写真と絵が壁で貼ってある。僕は老人に成るとこの人(
建部清庵、江戸時代の医者）の格好をやっていたらいいなぁと思う。

One thing I noticed is that maybe Japanese people have a hard time learning English because their resource materials are grammatically incorrect.
一つの見つけた点は日本人は上手く英語が習えないのは学び資源は文法的に間違えているかもしれない。

On Friday I went to Sendai to pick up Jamie. At the station was an exhibition about the northernmost islands of Japan. At the end of the war, Russia invaded and took the islands. Upon conclusion of a peace treaty, the islands were to be returned to Japan. However, a peace treaty has never been ratified so the islands are still in Russian hands. Control of them also means control of potential oil and fish resources. The exhibition had stuff like Tokugawa-era maps that included the islands and so forth.
金 曜日はジエメイを迎える為に仙台に行った。駅内では日本の一番北に在る島に ついての展開だった。戦争末に露西亜が侵入してその島を取った。平和条約を結ぶと島を返すと両国が同意した。しかし、平和条約はまだ結んでいないからその 島がまだ露西亜の領土だ。領土すると石油と漁業の資源も支配できる。展開でその島が含んでいる徳川時代の地図とかを示していた。

At first, I thought the reason for this sign was the impending night of Halloween. But no, it’s the normal sign.
最初はハロヰーンの為の看板だと思っていたが、やっぱり毎日出す普通看板だ。

I think she’s a bitch.
メスはビッチだと思う。

After Jamie arrived, we went walking downtown in search of … well, I forget what, maybe it was breakfast, I recall we ate at Sukiya that day, oh wait, maybe it was the cleaning. Yeah, there’s this underground passage near the station to pass under a weird 3-way intersection, and it was very dirty, so a bunch of volunteers from the place I teach English at on Mondays went to clean it. And we went too. On the way, we took a few detours, including finding the steps to this temple. Now I know why the bus stop a few streets over is called Enman Temple.
ジ エメイが到着してから、一関で下町行きに何とか・・・ま、多分朝ごはんを探 していたので歩きはじめた。その日はスキヤで・・・いや、待って、掃除じゃなかった？そうそう、變な三角の交差 点を渡す為の地下道がいつも凄く汚いので、 僕が月曜日に英語を教える少年会館から色んな志願者が掃除をしにいった。そして僕達も参加した。行きながらは色んな遠回りを探検した。この寺の階段を見つ けるもお含み。隣の道のバス停は何で「円満寺」というか現在ご理解致した。

Oh no, wait, we weren’t going to the cleaning, not yet anyway – we were going to Hiraizumi to see the historical buildings and nonesuch! This stone has a poem by Basho engraved on it in English – translated by Nitobe. A very interesting thing happened on the way back though. In the train station, I decided to try and practice my Chinese with Jamie. Two little kids were next to us.

Boy: What language are they speaking in?

Girl: Well, it's not Japanese, so it must be English.

God.

あ、待って、まだ掃除に行く日じゃなかったー最初は歴史的な面白い跡とかを平泉で見に行った！この石で新渡戸に翻訳された芭蕉の俳句が刻んである。帰る時は面白かったけどさ。駅で待っている間にジエメイと中国語を練習しようと決めた。僕達の隣に二人の若い子が座っていた。
男子：何語で喋っている？
女子：日本語じゃないから確かに英語だね。
むかつく。

I think this is a boat, protected by straw.
これは麦藁に守られる小船だと思う。

For five hundred yen, you can ring the bell. I’m kind of afraid I would break it. Must be fun at New Year’s.
五百円を払うとこの鈴は打っていい。僕なら壊せるかもしれないからちょっと怖い。でもお正月は楽しいけどさ。

Holy Smoke!
聖煙！So anyway, after the cleaning that I mentioned before, we were kindly taken by I-Hate-Computers and Manga Girl to a small town way out in the sticks called Tome. Apparently it was the capital of Mizusawa Prefecture for about two years until it was merged into the surrounding administrations. The city has preserved a lot of its historical buildings, and the early fusion of West-Japan styles in the buildings is readily visible. One fun building was the elementary school.
さっ き言った掃除が終わってから、「電脳嫌い」と「漫画女子」と一緒に「登 米」という町に連れてきてもらった。なんか隣の県に合併される前に「水沢県」の首都だった。この町は歴史的な建物を保存しているし、早い和洋の様式の融合 がよく見える。一軒の面白い建物は小学校だった。

Inside, they had a stuffed white badger for some reason – being a Brock graduate, I of course had to take a picture of it
中に変な理由で穴熊の跡があった。ブロック大学の卒業者だから写真を絶対に撮らなくちゃならなかった。

You think the schools are cold NOW? Try a hundred years ago! With the added bonus of too much fire burning down the school.学校は現在寒いと思うかい？百年前はいかが？後は火を付けすぎると建物を燃やす。

Class started soon enough though. I had to sit beside Jamie, who knew all the answers. 授業がそろそろ始まった。答えの全部が分かっていたジエメイの隣で座らなくちゃならなかった。

I-Hate-Computers displays the benefits of math without calculators. 電脳嫌いさんが電卓を使わずの算数の偉さを示してくれる。

Here you can see Tome the way it was, and in the mirror, how it is today ... concrete. この写真で昔の登米が見える・・・そして、鏡で、現在のコンクリート。

An example of the former glory of Tome. 登米の昔の栄えの例の一つ。

In the former court I receive judgement for accidentally walking on tatami with slippers on. Death! 旧裁判所で誤って畳で部屋履を脱がずに歩いたから判断されます。死刑！

Tome also has its original police station. Here I escape from my sentence. 登米も最初の警察署が残ってある。ここで判断から逃げるぞ！

Okay, that's enough for now. I'll add more Wikipedia links to explain things and begin the Japanese translation in a day or two. Heh, I should have lots of time at Hanamaki for the upcoming onsen trip. Okay, see you!
よーし、それは十分十分。でもすぐ更新するのでお楽しみに！

Explanation 説明

Jamie is here. So no updates for a while. But rest assured, they will be VERY interesting. ジエメイがいるので最近は更新してない。でも、更新する時は超面白い記事を書くよ。